62 THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE 



question, What is Nature Study? Opinions may, 

 and probably do, differ very largely, but we may 

 well ask, does Nature Study consist of teaching 

 Botany, or Ornithology, or Mammalogy, or Ento- 

 mology, or Conchology, or any other branch of 

 Natural Science ? Is it not a fact that now science 

 has become very homogeneous a great deal of the 

 work connected with various branches has united 

 them in a more intimate manner than formerly? 

 As has been wisely said by a well-known teacher 

 and examiner : — 



" The Science Primers which were published 

 thirty years ago served an excellent purpose in 

 their day. They aimed at representing in simple 

 language, and in an elementary and introductory 

 manner, the condition of our knowledge of the 

 several sciences at that period. But science has 

 advanced greatly since then; new facts have been 

 discovered; older observations have been re- 

 interpreted; new theories have been formulated, 

 and old ones amended or discarded altogether. 

 Moreover, research on the border lines between 

 the various sciences has obliterated the hard and 

 fast boundaries at one time supposed to exist, 

 while the vast accessions to knowledge have 

 necessitated extensive subdivision of many of 

 the sciences. 



" It would seem, therefore, that the time has 

 come when a re-statement of the fundamental 



